Was Sonny Truyen’s belittling of Singapore and his sack just a gimmick?

Conspiracy Theorist’s version of the Sonny Truyen story (this is completely made up):
Sonny Truyen walked into the office of 99.co and told the CEO he could raise the company profile within a week.

The CEO laughed. “If you can, I’ll pay you a year’s salary immediately!”

So Sonny accepted the challenge, and cursed online at Singapore for not having Pokemon Go.

The CEO had to fire him and promised everyone publicly that the company stand for great integrity and is proud of being a Singaporean company. But because it was big news, he got the sales pitch on every major press and online site. Now everyone knows about 99.co!